wilkinson



(No Model.)

A. W. WILKINSON.

Apparatus for Heating Retort Benches in the Manufacture of Gas.

No. 241,109. Patented May 3,1881.

Mum-um yffj WW v%% UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ASA W. WILKINSON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

APPARATUS FOR HEATING RETORT-BENCHES IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 241,109, dated May 3, 1881.

Application filed August 17, 1880.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Asa W. WILKINSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Heating Retort-Benches in the Manufacture of Gas, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has for its object to furnish an apparatus which can be applied to the ordinary retort-benches in use, for the purpose of heating the retort-benches by a combined blast of hot air and superheated steam.

The apparatus forming myinvention is illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, in which Figure 1 is a front view. Fig. 2 is a side elevation, partly in section.

Similar letters indicate corresponding parts.

In carrying out this invention hard coal is substituted for coke, which has heretofore been usedin heating the retort-benches in the manufacture of gas.

As coke is more expensive and not so readily obtainable as hard coal, attempts have frequently been made to heat the retorts in gasmaking with hard coal. The chief difficulty which has prevented the adoption of hard coal for this purpose has been the lack of sufficient draft, and even when this has been supplied by lengthened chimneys or by blowers the heat has been too concentrated in the furnace and not sufficiently voluminous to heat the retortoven in all parts to sufficiently high temperature to decompose the contents in the higher retorts.

In order to heat the air which is to be supplied to the furnace it is led through a wroughtiron tube placed over the chimneys of the benches, whereby said tube and the air passing through the same are heated by the waste heat passing out at the chimneys. From said hot-air tube the heated air passes into thelatoral pipes, by which it is delivered directly under the grate-bars. These lateral pipes terminate in funnel-shaped reductions, whereby the velocity of the draft is increased.

To produce the blast required to burn hard coal successfully a jet of steam is employed, which is supplied by any ordinary boiler, such as is usually employed about the works. Be-

fore enterin g the jet the steam is passed through (No model.)

a superheater placed in one of the fines of the furnace, where it becomes heated to a very high degree, serving the double purpose of increasing the power of thejet, and also furnishing superheated steam, together with the heated air, to the incandescent coal. The high temperature-causes a decomposition of the steam in the presence of the carbon, whereby hydrogen and carbonic oxide are formed, which, in the presence of the air, burn with voluminous flamein. the furnace-oven, producing intense heat and a more satisfactory result than is usually produced by the combustion of coke.

By dispensing with a blower I also save the expense and power required to run the same.

In the drawings, the letter A designates a retort-bench. B is a hot-air tube, preferably of wrought-iron, placed over the chimneys H, where it is heated by the Waste heat and flame escaping from said chimneys. The air flows in at either end of this tube, and after becoming heated it is drawn down into the lateral pipes G, which lead it to the'furnace-fire.

The steam required to produce a blast in the pipes (3 passes through the steam-pipe D into the superheater E, lying in the fluebeneath a retort, from whence it passesinto the jet F in the funnel-shaped reduction of the heated air-tube.

To regulate or cut off the blast a stop-cock, G, is provided on the steam-pipe D, whereby the flow of steam can be regulated or out oif and the desired result accomplished.

From the drawings it will be seen that this arrangement is readily applicable to any ordinary retort-benchwithout requiring any change or dismemberment of the retort-bench or any part thereof.

Another advantage of the use of hard coal is the avoidance of the formation of a large amount of clinkers and of the delay in removin g the same.

Heretofore retoris have been heated by fuel, the combustion of which is urged by a blast of steam and air, and therefore 1 make no broad claim to such; but

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination, with aretort-bench and the chimney extending from the furnace-chamber, of a hot-air pipe open at its ends to the atmosphere and heated by the products of combustion which pass through the chimney, a pipe In testimony whereof Ihave hereunto set my extending from the hot-air tube to the furnace, hand and seal in the presence of two subscrib- 10 and provided at its lower end with ajet-pipe, in g witnesses.'

at superheater arran ed below the retort and 5 steam-supply pipesc onnecting' thesuperheater WILKlNSON' with a source of steam-supply and with the jet- Witnesses: pipe in the furnacechamber, all substantially J. VAN SANTVOORD, as herein shown and described. E. F. KASTENHUBER. 

